


Citadel Noire

by Spaceprincealenko



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, just to cover my bases, rape warning not for main couple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:40:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29926647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spaceprincealenko/pseuds/Spaceprincealenko
Summary: A collection of one shots set in the world my detective au, this pairing has too much buddy cop potential and it seemed wrong to ignore that.Kaidan Alenko and Garrus Vakarian are both detectives in the investigation division of C-sec, close friends and partners but recently those feelings have grown past anything professional or platonic. The only problem is their job, keeping them from giving into those feelings at the risk of affecting the team or their cases.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Jacob Taylor, Kaidan Alenko/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Kaidan splashed cold water on his face in an attempt to wake himself up, that brief two hour nap was the most sleep he's gotten lately and he wasn't the only one. The whole station has been sleep deprived as of late, missing persons cases usually involve more coffee than they do actual shut eye. 

"How are you doing Alenko?" His partner Garrus asked as he leaned up against the doorway. 

"Fine, just shaking off my nap." Kaidan told him as he patted his face down with a towel.

Garrus pushed himself off the wall and walked over to him "Shepard and Taylor found something they want us to see but if you still need a moment I can go ahead." He said softly, placing a gentle hand on Kaidan's shoulder. 

"I appreciate that Vakarian but I'm okay, really I'm just tired." He told his turian partner, the dark circles under his whiskey brown eyes further adding to his statement. 

"If you're sure…" Garrus said as he watched Kaidan make a half assed attempt at fixing his tie before giving up. "Here, let me." 

Kaidan turned to him an eyebrow quirked up "No offense, but since when do you know how to tie a tie? Let alone fix one." 

"Just shut up and let me help you." 

Kaidan shrugged, a small smile tugging at his lips "Be my guest." 

Garrus clumsily took a hold of the front of his tie, his talons making it harder than it had to be. Slowly he started pulling the knot in the front up his shirt to his collar. "Is that too tight?" He asked, blue eyes looking into his brown ones, making Kaidan blush at the closeness.

"No...it's perfect, thank you." Kaidan's tan skin had a light tinge of pink to it and Garrus wasn't quite sure but that's probably what humans called...blushing? Yeah that was the word Shepard used. But why was he blushing? 

"Are you sure you're feeling okay? Your face is a bit pink." Garrus pointed out, only making his human partner more flustered.

"Come on, we shouldn't keep them waiting." Kaidan said as he turned away and walked ahead of him, it could've just been the amount of time they've been spending together but his feelings for Garrus are slowly evolving from professional and bordering on romantic, it wasn’t the fact that Garrus was another man or even that he was an alien that bothered him, they were partners. It wasn’t exactly frowned upon, there was no official rule about it, if there was Jacob and Buttercup wouldn’t be together but it could get in the way of a case. If a suspect made them choose between each other or the victim things could get really complicated really quickly. Kaidan liked to think they’d both be able to make the decision to save the victim over each other but he couldn’t be sure, maybe it was time for a new partner. It’s not what he wanted, but it would be for the best. 

“What did you get?” Kaidan asked the pair of detectives, Garrus following close behind him.

“Well…” Jacob opened the holo journal, pulling up the most recent entries “the victim’s mother stopped by with her journal, thought it might help the case.”

“And will it?” Garrus asked.

Jacob nodded “I believe so, all the entries are from the time period she went missing.” 

“Is her mother still here?” Kaidan asked.

“That she is, she wanted to stay in case we had any questions, she’s pretty hysterical but who can blame her.” Buttercup answered.

Kaidan nodded “Yeah…” he didn’t have kids himself, so he couldn’t imagine what she was going through but he was going to do everything he could to get Nef back to her. 

“Where is she now?” Garrus asked.

“Put her in an interrogation room, had Verner go get her some coffee, figured having him talk her ear off might distract her.” 

Jacob chuckled “Come on Butters, hasn’t the lady suffered enough already?” he joked as he pulled up the entry she made just a day before she disappeared. 

Nef’s face popped up on the screen, a bright smile on her face “Cycle forty-two, orbit sixty-seven. She’s going to take me to her apartment tonight! Whatever happens, I want to be with her forever.” 

“Any idea who she could be talking about?” Kaidan asked.

“None, although probably a girlfriend from the sound of it.”

“I’ll play the next one.” Jacob said, pulling up the middle entry.

“Cycle thirty-six, orbit six-hundred seventy one. Am I a freak? Morinth is a girl like me and she’s definitely not human. When we dance and the Hallex is flowing through me...the way she looks at me with a hunger, a longing….no ones ever looked at me like that, we kissed tonight.”

Buttercup looked at them “Funny, the mom didn’t mention a relationship.”

“Maybe she wanted to keep a secret, sure maybe the same sex aspect wasn’t an issue but the alien aspect could’ve been.” Kaidan said, mainly speaking from experience. His parents were extremely accepting when he came out but that was probably because they assumed he met human men, which he did, until he partnered up with Garrus and now he wasn’t too sure the reaction would be as accepting if he one day told them he was dating a turian and here he was again, fussing over things that would probably never happen anyway. 

“Only one way to find out, one of us should go question her.” Buttercup said. 

“I can go talk to her, too many of us in there might overwhelm her.” Kaidan told her.

“Good idea, you’re better with victims then I am.” Garrus said, giving him a friendly pat on the back. 

“Agreed, we’ll stay here and see what else we can dig up and let you know.” Jacob called after him as he pulled up the last entry in her journal.  
\----------  
Kaidan walked into the room, Conrad and Nef’s mother Diana turning to look at him “Oh, detective Alenko, good to see you, I was just dropping off some coffee.” 

Kaidan didn’t mind Conrad too much, like the other people at the precinct he put up with him but right now his voice was a little too loud for the growing headache he had. “That’s great Conrad, thank you, I need to talk to our guests now, could you give us some privacy?” he asked, giving him the best smile he could. 

“Of course, just let me know if you need anything.” He saluted before walking out of the room, Kaidan letting out a sigh “Thanks for coming down Ms-”

“Just Diana is fine.” She told him as he took a seat across from her. 

“Okay Diana, i’m detective Alenko, I wanted to ask you some questions about your daughter if you’re up for it.” 

Diana wiped her eyes “Of course, anything to find my baby.” 

“Thank you, now in her journal she mentioned a Morinth, it sounded like they were romantically involved, to your knowledge was she seeing someone?”

“So the journal helped? Oh thank goodness!” she said on a sob “I know of Morinth yes, I wouldn’t exactly say they were in a relationship, i’ve never met her and it seemed they only hung out at Purgatory.”

Kaidan nodded as he took some notes “Purgatory...and how often did she go out?”

“My daughter didn’t have many friends so not often, until she met her.” Kaidan got the feeling she didn’t like whoever this Morinth was and he couldn’t blame her. According to Buttercup and Jacob who talked to her first, Nef had changed drastically after meeting this mystery woman.

“She also mentioned Morinth wasn’t human, any idea what species she was?” 

“An asari.” 

That was interesting, he’d run into quite a few asari mercenaries and if that were the case they would have requested a ransom and this could've been over and done with a lot sooner. “She didn’t mention the Blue suns or Eclipse?” He knew the answer but he wanted to cover all his bases just in case. 

“Not from what I recall, no, I probably would’ve come by a lot sooner if that was the case.” she placed her head in her hands “how could this happen? I thought the Citadel was supposed to be safer than Omega.” 

If there’s one thing Kaidan has learned from this job it’s that no where is really safe, evil can be found around every corner and it’s unfortunate she learned that the hard way. “We’re going to do everything we can to find your daughter ma’am.” he wasn’t going to make any promises, it would only get her hopes up and he hated to say it but Nef was probably dead by now, he was still going to do his best to find her body, but right now their main objective was to find this Morinth and bring her in to answer for what she did to this innocent girl and her mother. 

\----------  
“Well…” Buttercup sighed as the four of them looked at Nef’s body “anybody surprised?” she asked.

“I want to be.” Jacob answered grimly. 

“Any idea what happened here Chakwas?” Kaidan asked.

“Physically I don’t see anything, could’ve been an overdose, I’ll know more when I get to the lab.” She answered. 

“Now onto our favorite part, which one of us is telling her mother?” Buttercup asked.

“Garrus and I can go and then will meet you at the autopsy.” Kaidan suggested.

“Sounds good to me, Buttercup?” Jacob asked, turning to look at her.

“Works for me if it works for y'all, lets go.” Buttercup liked to act like she was fine and not tired but she usually kept her accent in check, lest she confuse the translators so the fact it was slipping meant this was finally getting to her. 

Kaidan’s shoulders sagged as soon as he and Garrus were somewhat alone “I wish we found her sooner.” He said softly. 

“I know, but hopefully Chakwas will give us a lead so we can get justice for her.” Garrus placed a hand on his shoulder, jostling him a bit in an attempt to cheer him up.

“Yeah...that’s the idea isn’t it?” If it was an overdose was Morinth really responsible? Maybe she gave her one to many Hallex and panicked when Nef passed out. Not a behavior he particularly condoned but it wasn’t a murder charge. Something told him it wasn’t a simple overdose but with no obvious external injuries what could it be? He really hoped Chakwas could find something.


	2. Chapter 2

“How are you two doing at Purgatory?” Buttercup asked over the comm as her and Kaidan sat outside the suspect’s apartment. “Behaving yourself Jacob?” she teased earning a chuckle from her boyfriend.

“Always baby, chatted up a few club goers and they all told us the same thing.”

“Which would be…?”

“We need to talk to Aria T’loak.”

Buttercup rested her forehead against the steering wheel “Of course we do….alright well, keep me posted yeah?” Aria hated the Citadel, lucky for her she had pull among the council so she was basically untouchable, it certainly didn’t help that she despised cops, Omega wasn’t known for it’s stellar law enforcement if it even had any. 

“Roger that, Taylor out.” 

Buttercup sighed as she watched the apartment through the sky car's window. “Stakeouts are so boring.” she practically whined, in all truthfulness Kaidan wasn’t a fan either, but he was patient by nature, unlike the woman next to him. 

“You just want to be with Jacob.” He teased.

“Ha! Fair, I’ve seen that man in casual wear, I’m sure he’s getting all kinds of looks right now, none of them from me.” she looked over at Kaidan “but anyway, how did it go with the victim’s mom?”  
Kaidan shifted in his seat “About as bad as usual, never an easy thing to hear that your only child was murdered.” 

Buttercup sighed “Hopefully we can find whoever this Morinth is and put a stop to it, I mean how do you kill someone with a brain hemorrhage? Especially if there aren’t any external injuries, I’ve never seen anything like that.” 

“I don’t know Butters, let’s just hope Jacob can charm his way into Aria’s heart.” Kaidan replied.

“Please, have you met him? Of course he can.”

“Hey Buttercup, can I ask you something?”

“What’s up Kai?” 

“You and Jacob, how do you make that work?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Like with work and everything, doesn’t it complicate things?”

Buttercup leaned back in her chair “Hmmm, not really, I mean it certainly helps that we work together but we trust our partner’s with our lives, hell we spend nearly every waking moment with them, if anything our relationship had deepened that, sure we could get into it at home and bring it to work but i’m not the type for that and neither is he.” she looked at him “why do you ask?”

Kaidan shook his head “No reason.”

“Really? It seems like an awfully odd question to ask out of the blue.”

“Just curious, that’s all.” 

“Is that right? I thought what co-workers do outside of work was ‘none of your business’ at least that’s what you told me.” Kaidan was quiet “are you interested in someone at work mayhaps?” she pried.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He said, trying to brush her off.

“Is it Chambers?”

Kaidan chuckled “Absolutely no-”

“Because I heard her call Garrus sexy the other day so-” 

Kaidan finally looked at her “Garrus? She uh….she likes Garrus?”

“I think lust is more accurate but yeah, apparently she’s into aliens.”

Kaidan felt a pang of jealousy in his heart “Oh…” 

Buttercup took a sip from her water bottle, his reaction seeming a bit odd “Kaidan, do you like Garrus?” 

His face turned the brightest red she’d ever seen and he looked out the window “No! At least not like that, he’s my partner that’s all.” 

“Um hello? Who do you think you’re talking to.” 

Kaidan sighed “Just drop it okay?” 

“For now but once we’re-” 

“Butters you there?” Jacob asked over her comm.

“What’s up babe?” 

“We’re on our way to Morinth’s apartment, we figured out what happened to Nef,” Kaidan and Buttercup locked eyes before moving in close so he could hear “Morinth definitely killed her, apparently she’s an ardat-yakshi.” 

“What the hell does that mean?” 

“Put bluntly she kills people she mates with because of some rare genetic mutation, apparently she’s a frequent flyer at Purgatory.” 

“Shit...how many more victims?” 

“Don’t know, she ran around Omega too according to Aria, just be careful.” 

Buttercup scoffed “She kills with sex and we don’t have any intention to sleep with her.” 

“Yeah but she’s gone this long without getting caught, who knows what tricks she has, so be careful and wait for us.”

Buttercup nodded “Yeah, okay, see you soon.” She hated waiting but he was right, who knew what else she had in store for them.

“Death by hook-up.” Kaidan said as he loaded his gun.

“Looks like it, maybe we should just say brain hemorrhage if her mother asks.” Buttercup suggested as she reached for her vest, unlike Kaidan and Jacob she didn’t have a fancy biotic barrier to keep her safe. 

“Good idea.” 

It wasn’t long before Garrus and Jacob joined them and they quickly made it up to her apartment, they hadn’t seen her leave since they got there so it was a safe bet she was inside and hopefully not with another victim. 

“Ya’ll ready?” Buttercup asked, waiting for the three men to nod before she kicked the door open “C-sec! Come out Morinth!” they were met with silence, the lights were on and it clearly looked lived in, so where was she? 

“My, my, guess it was about time.” Morinth said in a sultry voice as she neared them, cascaded in a blue light, it was no surprise she was a biotic, every asari she met was, the question was just how powerful of a biotic is she. 

Buttercup shook her head “Don’t try it lady.” 

“Or what? You’ll shoot me?” she taunted.

“If we have to.” Buttercup replied.

Morinth smirked and turned to Kaidan, her eyes going pitch black as she looked at him, his gun clattering to the ground in an instant and he took a step towards her, Garrus catching his wrist “What are you doing Kaidan?” 

“I...I have to…” he didn’t sound like himself, monotone, like he was a mindless drone.

“What did you do to him?!” Garrus yelled.

“Me? I haven’t done a thing.” She said, feigning innocence.

“Garrus she’s….she’s in my head.” his voice was strained as he spoke and he knew Kaidan was doing his best to fight back, to not let her overtake him. Garrus pulled Kaidan against him, holding him with one arm as he pointed his gun at Morinth. 

“Let him go now! Don’t make me shoot you.” Garrus growled, Kaidan was his partner, he wasn’t going to allow anyone to harm him. 

“You have to take me in alive right? I mean, you need a confession right?” She laughed and that set him off, Nef the innocent girl she killed along with who knew how many others, they meant nothing to her, just more numbers on her kill count. That poor girl really seemed to love Morinth but she was manipulated, she was the worst kind of killer and now she was trying to take Kaidan, the one person he cared about more than anything. Over his dead body. Garrus fired once, twice and she fell to the ground, blue blood pooling beneath her, releasing Kaidan in the process.   
Garrus’s gun joined Kaidan’s on the floor as he fell to his knees with him, shrugging off his jacket and wrapping it around his human partner “Kaidan, can you hear me?” he tried not to sound as frantic and anxious as he felt right now. 

“Garrus get him out of here.” Buttercup ordered as she moved in on Morinth, not holstering her gun on the off chance she was alive, doubtful though, Garrus was an excellent shot, he had the best scores in the division, never hurt to be too careful, they didn’t have much of a threat assessment other than ‘don’t sleep with her.’ 

Garrus scooped Kaidan up in his arms, he was no doctor but there wasn’t any blood he could see and he was breathing normally, hopefully he was just taking a nap but he was still going to get him checked out just to be on the safe side.   
\-------------  
Kaidan groaned as he lay face down on one of the cots at the station “Damned asari…” he looked at Garrus. “I heard you killed her?” the turian nodded “Good.” he said, burying his face in the old, hardly stuffed pillow. 

Garrus chuckled “And I thought your role was good cop.” he teased, gently nudging him.

“Ha ha, I'll go back to being good cop after my head stops pounding.” his reply muffled by the pillow. 

Garrus snorted “Suppose I can’t blame you,” he stood up and that caught Kaidan’s attention. “I’ll let you get some rest.”

“You’re leaving?” 

“Just to fill out a report but...I suppose I could stay if you need me to.” he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. 

Kaidan blushed, he knew he should let him go, but that report could wait a little while longer couldn’t it? “I wouldn’t mind the company.” he said, giving him the best smile he could manage. 

As strained as it was it made Garrus’s heart skip a beat, he still didn’t know much about human beauty standards but Buttercup had mentioned Kaidan was considered attractive by them, attractive didn’t seem to cut it though, Kaidan was simply beautiful, that was it, even by turian standards if he really thought about it. Nice fringe, supportive waist and….spirits, he was in trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

Kaidan fired his gun at the target at the other end of the shooting range, firing round after round into the black and white piece of paper. He often came by if he had too much on his mind, to clear his head and he was in desperate need of it right now. It was hard to stop thinking about Garrus, especially since they worked together. He sighed, setting his gun down on the table in front of him, turning around at the sound of someone whistling.

"Looks like I have some stiff competition." Garrus said, leaning back up against the door.

Kaidan shook his head, chuckling "Buttercup maybe, but me? No, I'm more skilled with tech."

"Biotics too."

Kaidan snorted "Yeah, too bad the executor won't let me use them." 

"Why is that exactly?"

"Too unpredictable." He said rolling his eyes, as he put his gun away.

"The asari are allowed to use theirs though."

"Yeah because they have 'formal training'."

"I thought humans did too? I remember you mentioning an academy."

Kaidan nodded "Yeah, Grissom, wasn't around when Jacob and I were kids though, it's basic education for asari while humans have to be a bit older before they can train theirs."

"Huh...I don't know if that's a good enough reason to keep you from using them though."

"We can only use barrier and stasis which realistically is all we need but-"

"It's still frustrating." Garrus continued.

Kaidan nodded "Precisely." He walked over to Garrus "but you didn't come here to listen to me complain."

Garrus shrugged "I heard you were down here and I know you only come here to clear your head so I wanted to see how you were doing, we haven't had much time to talk about something non-work related."

It wasn't uncommon, the job could get stressful and Garrus had a tendency to bottle things up and Kaidan was an over thinker, they liked to check up on each other fairly often. "Oh...uh...it's nothing, just felt up for some range time." Kaidan certainly couldn't admit that the reason he was down here was because he couldn't stop thinking about him. 

"Promise? You know you can tell me anything Kaidan." Garrus said sincerely and he often did just….not this time, he couldn't this time. Not if he wanted to continue being partners with him and friends. Garrus was the closest friend he had and he valued that, Kaidan didn't want to complicate things. It was enough to just spend time with him, even if their relationship didn't evolve past what it already was. 

Kaidan nodded "Yeah, promise." 

"Do you want to go get a drink then? It's been a long week, figured we could use it."

"Sure, Shepherd and Taylor coming?" Kaidan asked as they walked back upstairs.

"Nope, date night so it'll just be us."

Kaidan smiled to himself "Sounds fantastic."  
\--------------  
"Humans have," he took Kaidan's hand in his "so many fingers, why?" Garrus asked, clearly drunk.

Kaidan laughed, the whiskey going to his head "I don't know, why do turians only have three?"

"Because…" Garrus tried to come up with an answer.

"Because?"

"Biology Kaidan, because of biology." He said as he finished another glass of turian brandy. 

Kaidan took Garrus's hand "They look like...string beans…" he observed going into a drunken fit of giggles. 

"What the hell is a string bean?" Garrus asked as the bartender poured him another glass. 

"It's a human food...a vegetable." He told him, finishing his own glass. 

"Birds, dinosaurs, vegetables…you humans are creative…" he trailed off, unable to take his eyes off Kaidan. He was happy Jacob and Buttercup didn't come with them, really happy but also nervous. Lately being alone with Kaidan has given him that feeling, that nervous giddiness, it almost felt like nausea but not quite, like something was fluttering around inside him. He knew the humans had an expression and he knows he's heard it but he couldn't think of it, likely from the alcohol but he couldn't be sure. 

Kaidan had that effect on him, it was hard to think clearly around him. Garrus knew any sort of relationship wouldn't be accepted by his father and their relationship was strained enough but was that really a reason to not be with someone he cared about? He joined C-sec because of his father, he let him decide his career was he really going to let him dictate who he decided to...to love...that’s what it was wasn’t it? Love, for his partner, his best friend. Even in his drunken state he’d never tell him, he’d take it to his grave.   
\--------  
Once they sobered up they left the bar, usually they'd take a cab and go their separate ways but not tonight, they didn't want the night to end just yet, not until they had to say good night. Instead they walked to Garrus's apartment, their hands brushing against each other, on purpose or on accident neither of them were sure and they didn't want to look at it too deeply. 

"Thanks for inviting me out, Garrus." Kaidan said as they got to the turian's front door.

Garrus shook his head "No need, I always have a good time with you Kaidan, thanks for coming."

Kaidan blushed, it could've just been the alcohol but something in the way Garrus looked at him seemed...different. "Anytime, good night." 

"Kaidan." Garrus called out as his partner walked away.

Kaidan stopped and turned to face him "Yeah?"

He could say it, right now, Kaidan might not even remember and things would remain the same but at least he told him "I…" say it "you uh…" 

Kaidan looked at him concerned "Are you okay Garrus?"

"You're….You're my best friend Kaidan." Damn it.

Kaidan tilted his head in confusion before chuckling "I know, you're mine too Garrus."

Garrus gave a weak smile "Yeah it's just, doesn't hurt to remind you."

Kaidan smiled back at him "I appreciate the reminder then, have a good night Garrus."

"Yeah, you too Kaidan." 

Garrus watched him leave before walking into his own apartment, it was for the best, a human and a turian wouldn't work anyway. Too much bad blood between species. At least that was his justification.


End file.
